☕️Lessons Learned

Good morning.

Reuters’ report into Elon Musk’s mass firing of Tesla’s EV Supercharger division makes for riveting reading.

The newswire confirmed reports that Musk decided to fire chief of the Supercharger division, Rebecca Tinucci, last month, when she balked at his request to cut more of her staff after firing 15%-20% in the weeks prior. Musk responded by sacking the entirety of her 500-strong team. When the layoffs were announced at the end of April, Musk posted that the company “still plans to grow the Supercharger network, just at a slower pace.”

In a surprise to few, it turns out that Tesla quite desperately needs a Supercharger team, and on Friday Musk posted: “Tesla will spend well over (US)$500m expanding our Supercharger network to create thousands of NEW chargers this year.”

Wall Street Oasis captures the feeling rather effectively.

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Market movers

Shares in Iress fell almost 6% before settling to close at $8.29 yesterday, after the financial services software group said unauthorised access to OneVue's platform was gained in a data breach flagged earlier in the week. Iress said on Wednesday a stolen credential from its third-party user space GitHub was used to gain access to client data in the production environment of its OneVue platform over the weekend. 

The quick sync

• While clean energy investors have welcomed the budget’s hydrogen and critical minerals tax breaks, policy experts warn that rigorous selection frameworks are essential to backing the right firms. (Capital Brief)

• GPG Renewables Australia is advancing discussions with major banks for a $1.6b debt refinancing. (AFR)

• China’s government is mulling plans to buy unsold homes to rescue property market. (Bloomberg)

• US inflation eased to 3.4% in April, in line with economists’ expectations and reversing a rise in consumer prices the month prior. (Capital Brief)

• PT Vale Indonesia has been granted an extension of its special mining business permit until December 2035. (Capital Brief)

• Melbourne startup, Mesh Assist, is using AI to help Microsoft tackle mental health challenges in the workplace. (Capital Brief)

M&A

• Potential buyers eye Anglo American's valuable metallurgical coal assets in Australia, with players including Whitehaven Coal, Stanmore Coal, and BHP. (The Australian)

• The Puljich family has agreed to sell eight land-lease communities from their Living Gems business to Avid Property Group. (AFR)

• Southern Cross Media rejects ARN Media's revised takeover bid. (Capital Brief)

• Investors are closely monitoring Regis Healthcare founder Bryan Dorman's stake in the $1.2b aged care provider. (AFR)

• Two Karoon Energy shareholders plan to vote against five of the nine resolutions at the upcoming annual general meeting. (Capital Brief)

• Ampol is rumoured to lead the bid for EG Group's $1.5b convenience retail business in Australia, supported by its existing branding ties and supplier exclusivity. (The Australian)

• Conscious Investment Management is financing Greening Australia's acquisition of a 755ha agricultural property in NSW. (AFR)

• Novonix has signed a testing and development agreement with Volkswagen's battery subsidiary, PowerCo SE. (Capital Brief)

• Fletcher Building begins the sale of Tradelink plumbing supplies; prospective buyers receive detailed documents via Miles Advisory, with first-round bids possibly due sooner. (The Australian)

Capital Markets

• Ladon Capital is rebranding and launching as an independent residential property lender, continuing to invest in Jinding’s $2b pipeline. (AFR)

VC

• MYOB is ending its involvement with Slate Super, a startup super fund. (AFR)

People moves

• Genesis Energy has appointed Julie Amey as its new CFO, starting early November. (Capital Brief)

• Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and chief scientist of OpenAI, has announced his departure after nearly a decade. (Capital Brief)

Together with Power Writing

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• Kal is a former Macquarie banker who started and sold Letter of Intent (yes, this very newsletter).

• Christopher is a former McKinsey partner and COO who took a startup from 0 to a $3bn IPO in 5 years.

In other words, we aren’t professors. We’ve seen firsthand the huge impact your writing can have on your professional performance. It sounds obvious, yet no one ever teaches you to write for work. We're changing that.

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The watercooler